THE Goulburn Post is one of the oldest newspapers in NSW having been printed continuously since 1870.
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This year marks the 140th anniversary of the newspaper, which has seen many changes and has taken many guises over the years.
Former Goulburn historian Stephen J Tazewell OAM in his book Grand Goulburn examined the early history of the newspapers in this city.
The Goulburn Herald
ACCORDING to Mr Tazewell, the first newspaper in Goulburn appeared in 1848 and was called the Goulburn Herald.
Its proprietor was Mr Brent and it was first issued on July 1, 1848 and produced by hand press until 1860.
W.R Riley purchased the Goulburn Herald in 1857 and the Riley family ran the newspaper for most of its life.
It was a tri-weekly and it changed name to The Southern Morning Herald. The Goulburn Evening Post acquired the Southern Morning Herald in 1927.
Other newspapers published in Goulburn around the same time included The Goulburn Chronicle, the Goulburn Echo, The Evening Star as well as the Southern Daily Argus and the Goulburn Advertiser.
The colourful historyof the Goulburn Post
THE Goulburn Post is the only surviving newspaper of all of those early competitors and it was built upon ecclesiastical origins.
Mr Tazewell says in Grand Goulburn that the Anglican Diocese of Goulburn began publishing the Southern Observer in 1867.
But this newspaper had financial troubles right from the start.
J.T.Harris bought it in 1869 and the editor was John Henniker Heaton. It was called The Early Bird, but quickly changed its name to The Penny Post.
“An editorial in the Penny Post reputedly by Heaton was responsible for bringing a heavy libel action against Harris costing him over 1000 pounds,” Tazewell writes.
This was a fortune in those days!
“In 1870, Harris, no doubt due to financial pressure, sold his plant and paper to G.A.Gray.”
Gray had been on the staff of the Goulburn Herald. He sold the business to Thomas Daniel, and this is when the
Goulburn Evening Penny Post came into being.
Gray continued to work with Daniel for a period, as attested to by this verse:
“Well printed as any, our paper today, and sold for a penny by Daniel and Gray.”
The earliest issue of the Penny Post under Daniel and Gray was October 6, 1870.
Gray later bought the Yass Tribune. Generally regarded as the father of the Goulburn Post (and Goulburn Evening Penny Post before it), Thomas Daniel came to Goulburn initially during the gold rushes at Adelong.
On his return trip to Sydney he stopped over in Goulburn and found work at the Goulburn Herald as a printing overseer.
He stayed on for 10 years.
When Daniel bought the Penny Post from Gray, he immediately set about tying to turn the newspaper’s fortune around after its earlier “bad fame.”
His hard work paid off however, with Ian Frazer - author of “The History of the Goulburn Evening Penny Post and the Goulburn Herald” - stating that by 1872, the Penny Post was “the journal which entered almost every house in the municipality”.
Mr Frazer wrote that the Penny Post installed “a new press in 1891, capable of turning out an issue in three hours and enabling readers to see their paper earlier”.
The paper was printed and published at the current Goulburn Post Office at 199 Auburn St, Goulburn. It was published on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
The first editor was John Henniker Heaton, who went over with the sale. Mr Tazewell writes that the newspaper became a broadsheet in 1881 and that when Thomas Daniel died in 1891, his sons Walter Thomas and Alfred succeeded him in running the newspaper.
Alfred died in 1920 and Walter Thomas Daniel carried on the business. In 1927, the propriety company Daniel
Bros and Co Pty Ltd was formed. Also in 1927, the paper became a daily, following amalgamation with the Southern Morning Herald.
Under the guidance of the Daniel family - whose portraits still adorn the walls of the office - Mr Frazer writes that the Post became a “household word and political force in the community.”
The “penny” was dropped from the title (probably due to inflation) and the name was changed to the Goulburn Evening Post in 1940.
In 1957, the Goulburn Evening Post again reverted to a tabloid size still used today. It became a morning paper in 1987 and was called The Goulburn Post. Many older readers still ring the newspaper asking: “Is that the Evening Post?”
Rural Press ran the Goulburn Post for many years until this company merged with Fairfax Media Ltd in 2006.
